Christmas Day has become the unofficial start of the NBA season for casual basketball fans, and so the league takes advantage of that fact, placing its best teams in competitive matchups on the day.

While this season hasn't exactly matched up with year's past because of injuries, there was still much to see from several star players and possible contending teams. Here's a rundown of the highlights from each game as they happen.

Nets-Bulls

The Chicago Bulls' success is built on effort and defense, which are two of the primary focuses of Tom Thibodeau's coaching style.

The Brooklyn Nets, billed as one of the best rosters in basketball to start the season, struggle with both those facets of basketball — and it showed in their 95-78 loss to the Bulls.

Chicago outworked the Nets all game, even as they played without forward Luol Deng and continued to suit up with Derrick Rose out for the season. The Bulls led in rebounds, assists and steals and routinely baited the Nets into bad possessions.

At no point was the Bulls' dominance more evident than in the third quarter. Chicago outscored the Nets, 36-20, in the period and opened up an insurmountable lead.

Knicks-Thunder

The Knicks were overmatched before their Christmas Day matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder started.

With Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton on the shelf, there would be no answer to Kevin Durant's prolific offensive ability in a game as a meeting of the league's two top scorers.

Things played out pretty much as expected, as the Thunder pummeled the Knicks, 123-94, as Durant scored 29 points and Russell Westbrook put up a triple-double of 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

The Best Knicks player was rookie Tim Hardaway Jr., but even he needed 19 shots to score 21 points. J.R. Smith had a similar night, as he posted 20 points on 8-of-22 shots.

Outside of the obvious Thunder stars, Wednesday was kindest to Reggie Jackson. His jaw-dropping dunk over Amare Stoudemire served as the signature moment of an 18-point effort.

Lakers-Heat

The all-effort Lakers did the best they could to compete with the Miami Heat, keeping the game close even as LeBron James went off on an in-game dunk contest.

Miami's Big Three combined for 65 points, with Ray Allen also there to provide timely shooting in a reserve role.

That said, this game will be remembered for James' first-half dunks and Young's second-half 3-pointers, one of which came right on a James contest.

Spurs-Rockets

Prior to the Houston Rockets' 111-98 win over the San Antonio Spurs, James Harden appeared set to become another casualy of a Christmas Day slate filled with injury.

Instead, Harden played facilitator to start the game and got it going when the Rockets needed him. He finished the game with 28 points, six rebounds and six assists and finished 11-of-16 shooting for an efficient night.

Before Harden got in the mix, it was Chandler Parsons who carried the Rockets. He hit five 3-pointers in the game and finished with 21 points.